Western Union connects social media to services through messenger bot

Western Union has taken a giant step by connecting social media to its services, as it introduced a money transfer bot for Facebook Messenger to allow its US customers to transfer funds to over 200 countries.

The Company disclosed that the bot will give messenger users access to Western Union’s digital and retail cross-border money transfer platform as well as real-time foreign exchange rates and automated customer support.

Odilon Almeida, Western Union president of global money transfer, said: “Western Union’s global money movement platform—trusted by millions of customers worldwide—can now be accessed through the world’s largest social network platform by users in the U.S, enabling convenience, access and simplicity to further connect individuals and communities all over the world.

“The Messenger platform allows Western Union to interact with our U.S. customers where they are, when they need us, in the most natural, conversational way.”

David Marcus, Facebook vice president of Messenger, said: “Our Messenger community in the U.S. can now connect with the rest of the world via Western Union’s services—either digitally or to a physical location—when sending money.

We are thrilled that the Western Union money transfer bot for Messenger is launching today.”